Pittsburgh Hockey History Timeline Pittsburgh Hockey History Timeline FAST FACTS â€¢ Hockey was played at four Â rinks through the first 75 years: Â The Schenley Park Casino, Duquesne Garde, The Winter Garden and the Civic Arena. Pittsburgh is quickly becoming a hockey hotbed. MONTREAL GAZETTE, from an article in December 1904. Pittsburgh hockey thriving for more than a century BOB GROVE Pittsburghhockey.net Contributer An excerpt from Pittsburgh Penguins: The Official History of the First 30 Years When Pittsburgh’s dark streets were populated by electric trolleys in the 1890’s, a former newspaperman named Andrew McSwigan struck upon an idea that would enrich the city’s cultural heritage for decades to come and provide a foundation for the hockey legacy inherited by the Penguins. Andrew McSwigan As the sprawling building where the Consolidated Traction Co. stored its horse-drawn cars was being abandoned, McSwigan imagined it as the city’s only indoor ice rink and something of a showplace.

A press agent for one of the companies leaving the site, he sold the idea to his boss, Christopher Magee, and the Duquesne Gardens Company was formed. The building was purchased for $200,000 and lavishly refurbished with another $250,000, and when Duquesne Garden opened for public skating on Jan. 23, 1899, some 10,000 people came to visit. It preceded Canada’s first indoor rink by 13 years. The Garden was more than simply a replacement for the ice surface at the Casino, an amusement center near the entrance to Schenley Park that had burned down in December, 1896 , and the place where manager James Conant introduced ice hockey to the city. Over the next 57 years, the Garden on Craig Street near Fifth Avenue in Oakland served as the site of public meetings, performances by the Metropolitan Opera, dancing marathons and an eclectic mix of sporting events. These included bicycle races, boxing, tennis exhibitions with Don Budge, winter sports shows that included ski jumping, bowling, rodeos with Roy Rogers and college basketball.

And it was home to the world’s first semi-professional hockey league. The night after its public opening, the Garden’s ice surface at 26,000 square feet the largest in the world hosted its first hockey game. The Pittsburgh Athletic Club defeated Western University of Pennsylvania (now Pitt), 4-0. Along with the Bankers Athletic Club and the Duquesne Country and Athletic Club, these teams constituted the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League, which lured Canadian players with the promise of big-city jobs. And they recruited some incredible talents. Hod Stuart, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame who won the Stanley Cup with the Montreal Wanderers in 1907, captained the Bankers; Alf Smith, a Hall of Famer who won four straight Cups as a player and coach with the legendary Ottawa Silver Seven from 1903 to 1906, captained Pittsburgh AC in 1909. The game at this time was played seven aside in 30-minute halves, and players got quite a workout laboring up and down the Gardens’ huge ice surface. The extra skating benefited the Pittsburgh pros, who formed some of the best teams the United States could produce.

Pittsburgh was among the five teams in the International Hockey League, which was formed in 1904 and lasted three years, and its scholastic ranks produced Ray Robinson, a Fifth Avenue graduate who was good enough by 1907 to become a real hockey rarity an American paid to play in Canada. The West Penn League was briefly revived in 1907, but by 1910 it, too, was history. The Garden hosted no hockey games from 1910 to 1915, catering instead to the nation’s roller skating craze. In 1912, the game was played again at the Winter Gardens in the old exposition buildings at the Point . The Winter Gardens had its own team, managed by Arthur Sixsmith, and by 1915 Duquesne Garden had revived hockey under the auspices of former hockey referee Roy Schooley. Schooley’s amateur team, the Yellow Jackets , was the first to bring an official national title to Pittsburgh, taking the U.S.

Amateur Hockey Association’s championship in 1924 and 1925 under Dick Carroll, who had coached the Toronto Arenas to the Stanley Cup in 1918. The Yellow Jackets beat Boston AA, 6-1, to clinch the first title on April 4, 1924, although the game was described on page 2 of the sports section, behind marbles coverage, in The Pittsburgh Press. As Western Section champions the following season, the Yellow Jackets beat the Eastern Section champion and city rival Fort Pitt Hornets for the title, clinching their championship defense with a 2-1 win on April 11, 1925. The Yellow Jackets were proof positive that Pittsburgh was still attracting some of Canada’s finest players. Their championship teams featured two players headed for the Hall of Fame: tiny goaltender Roy Worters, who at 5-4 and 140 pounds allowed an average of less than one goal in 81 games during the two championship seasons, and hulking defenseman Lionel Conacher. Conacher was later voted Canada’s athlete of the half-century, and it was easy to see why.

“Big Train,” as he was known, was a 6-1, 200-pound tour de force. He was a rugby and lacrosse star in Canada, as well as an amateur boxing champion. He played minor-league baseball with Toronto of the International League. He played football with the Toronto Argonauts and briefly here at Duquesne University, and when he showed up one day at Duquesne’s track practice, nobody could outrun him. When Schooley encountered financial problems, his promising team was purchased by attorney James F. Callahan and New York sportsman William Dwyer, renamed the Pirates and granted a spot in the NHL on Nov. 7, 1925. Henry Townsend, a Pittsburgh politician and president of the Duquesne Garden Co., organized the team, which featured 10 former Yellow Jackets, including Worters, Conacher and forward Hib Milks, who would be the Pirates’ leading scorer in each of their first four seasons. Odie Cleghorn, who had won the Cup with them in 1924, left the Montreal Canadiens to coach the Pirates.

In Pittsburgh, he gained hockey fame by becoming the first coach to make line changes “on the fly.” He even played goal briefly when Worters had pneumonia. Pittsburgh’s first NHL game was Nov. 26, 1925 at Boston, a 2-1 victory. Two nights later, Pittsburgh beat the Canadiens, 1-0, at Mt. Royal Arena in a game of historical significance. It was the last for the great Georges Vezina, whose goaltending superiority led the league to name after him a year-end trophy honoring its best goaltender. Vezina left the game after the first period with a high fever and died four months later of tuberculosis. The first NHL game in Pittsburgh was played at the Garden on Dec. 2, 1925, and 8,000 people saw the New York Americans score a 2-1 overtime victory. The ice surface had been reduced from 249 to 200 feet long to accommodate the NHL game. As Townsend and Cleghorn had predicted, the Pirates did challenge for the Stanley Cup that season, finishing third in the seven-team league with a 19-16-1 record.

But they lost both games of their total-goal series with the eventual Cup champion Montreal Maroons, dropping the first game, 3-1, in Montreal March 20. The Pirates would get no closer to the Stanley Cup. They traded Conacher to the Americans early in the 1926-27 season Â he would later help Chicago to the 1934 Cup and reached the playoffs only once more, in the spring of 1928. That was the season the NHL adopted three 20-minute periods and a rule forbidding players to toss the puck into the stands, a ploy often used to secure a rest. Despite a 4-2 victory in Game 2 at Madison Square Garden, the Pirates lost their two-game, total- goal series with the Cup-bound New York Rangers, 6-4. By the 1928-29 season , the team was showing signs of financial strain despite the inclusion of lightweight boxing champion Benny Leonard in the ownership group. Fan support was not as good as hoped.

Worters was sold to the Americans, for whom he promptly won the Hart Trophy as league MVP, and Baldy Cotton was sold to Toronto, whom he helped to the Cup three years later. Frank Fredrickson, a Hall of Famer who had played for the Cup champion Bruins the previous winter, replaced Cleghorn as the Pirates’ player-coach for the 1929-30 season . Fredrickson was a well-known and unique hockey figure. He played on the Canadian team that won gold in the 1920 Olympic Games and also won the Cup with the Victoria Cougars in 1925. He was a pilot in World War I and an accomplished violinist. But his Pirates team won just five of 44 games and finished with the NHL’s worst record. The only bright spot was a 10-5 win at the Gardens over Toronto on Nov. 19, the only game in NHL history in which two defensemen Pittsburgh’s Johnny McKinnon and Toronto’s Hap Day scored four goals each. When the season ended, the Pirates’ NHL run was over, the team having cost its owners $400,000.

But the Pirates, strangely enough, wouldn’t die an easy death. Callahan requested in 1930 that Pittsburgh’s home games be transferred to Philadelphia, where the Quakers were worse than even the last Pirates team and lasted one season. For each of the next five years, Callahan retained his franchise while suspending operations in the hope of building a new home for the Pirates. But a new rink was never forthcoming and the franchise was finally canceled on May 7, 1936. Earlier that year, the professional Pittsburgh Shamrocks had completed their first and only season in the eight-team International League. They were coached by Odie Cleghorn’s brother Sprague, a Hall of Famer who had won Cups with the Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens. The Shamrocks cost owners Ray Babcock, James McKay and Phil Jacks, a Canadian promoter, $36,000. Far more popular for city hockey fans at this time were the Yellow Jackets, who had been revived by Schooley in 1930. They were purchased in 1932 by John Harris, the man leasing the Garden from the Pittsburgh Railway Co. and the head of a chain of 29 movie theaters.

The Yellow Jackets served as a springboard to the NHL for two future Hall of Famers: goaltender Frank Brimsek, who earned the nickname “Mr. Zero” and won the Cup in 1939 and 1941 with Boston, and center Gord Drillon, who put his name on the Cup with the 1942 Maple Leafs. In 1936, Harris made two important decisions. He hired 24-year-old Norwegian figure skater Sonja Henie to perform before a Yellow Jackets’ game against Atlantic City on March 31, 1936, leading to the creation of the Ice Capades; and he bought the entire Detroit Olympics team, which had won the International League championship two years running. Harris retained the Olympics’ 28-year-old coach, Donnie Hughes, renamed the team the Hornets and placed them in the eight-team International American Hockey League as an affiliate of the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings. The Hornets’ first game was a 4-2 victory in Cleveland on Nov. 7, 1936 , and their first game at the Garden was a 5-2 win over Cleveland the following night.

Over their 26 years, the Hornets featured some of the best young players in hockey and gave Pittsburgh fans three championships and three devastating playoff losses. Larry Aurie, whose six years with the team from 1938 to 1944 represented the longest coaching tenure in Hornets’ history, was an interesting figure. After helping the 1937 Red Wings to the Cup, Aurie became an AHL All-Star right wing during his first season as Hornets’ player-coach. With him on that team was future Hall of Famer Sid Abel, who later joined Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay on Detroit’s famed Production Line and helped the Red Wings to three Cups. In 1940, Aurie became the first Hornets’ coach to take the team to the Calder Cup finals, where it was swept by Providence. That was also the last season of affiliation with the Red Wings. Harris disliked the shuffling of players from Pittsburgh to Detroit and made his team an independent for the next five seasons, during which it broke .500 only once.

For the 1945-46 season , the Hornets began a much more profitable affiliation with Toronto; over the next 11 seasons, they failed to surpass .500 only once and made five appearances in the Calder Cup finals. In the spring of 1947, the Hornets suffered the first of three Game 7 losses in the finals, this one to the Hershey Bears. One of the Pittsburgh stars then was Baz Bastien, who that season began a three-year run as the AHL’s best goaltender. Two seasons later, Sid Smith set the team record for goals (55) and points (112) for coach Bob Davidson. Like the Maple Leafs, the Hornets stressed defense as they became a perennial AHL power in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. When Bastien lost his right eye after being hit by a shot in training camp in 1949, Gil Mayer took over in goal and became a five-time AHL All-Star just like defenseman Pete Backor. “We were told never to roam, just to go up and down our wings,” remembered defenseman Frank Mathers, a six-time All-Star. Â “And play defense.

That was the Toronto style.” In the spring of 1951 came another Game 7 finals loss, this one to Cleveland. Taking over the team from coach Tommy Anderson for the 1951-52 season was King Clancy, a Hall of Famer who had played on three Cup champions with Ottawa and Toronto and one of the best defensemen in the game’s history. With Mayer in goal and future Hall of Famers Mathers, Tim Horton and Leo Boivin on defense, the Hornets were unstoppable. They defeated Providence in six games in the Calder Cup finals, Ray Hannigan’s goal at 6:08 of the second overtime period giving Pittsburgh a 3-2 victory on April 20, 1952 and bringing the city its first professional hockey title. The 1952-53 Hornets , however, set new standards for finals heartbreak. A 3-2 Game 6 victory over the Barons Dan Lewicki’s goal at 11:46 of the fourth overtime period sent fans spilling from the Gardens at 1:55 a.m. set up another Game 7 loss in Cleveland, this time on the flukiest of fluke goals.

At 6:23 of the mandatory 10-minute overtime period if the game remained tied, 20-minute sudden death periods ensued the Barons’ Bob Chrystal pulled up outside the Pittsburgh blue line and flipped the puck high into the Hornets’ zone to facilitate a line change. The puck landed short and wide of the Pittsburgh net but hopped crazily past Mayer. The Hornets had lost the game, 1-0, and the title. Coach Howie Meeker and long-time general manager Jim Balmer took Pittsburgh back to the finals in 1954-55 . Bob Solinger scored two goals to help the Hornets to a 4-2 victory over Buffalo on April 10, 1955 and their second Calder Cup. The 1955-56 season was the last for old Duquesne Gardens, which had been sold in 1950 by the Pittsburgh Railways Co. to a syndicate in a package of 58 properties for $800,000. The last hockey game ever played there was a 6-4 Cleveland victory over the Hornets on March 31, 1956. Demolition began on Aug.

13 of that year to make way for the Park Plaza Apartments. With nowhere to play while the Civic Arena was being built, the Hornets took five seasons off. They returned to Pittsburgh as an AHL independent for the 1961-62 season , and a crowd of 9,317 saw the first hockey game at the Civic Arena, a 2-1 loss to the Buffalo Bisons on Oct. 14. Rookie defenseman Paul Jackson scored the first Pittsburgh goal there at 5:58 of the third period. Much to the dismay of team and Civic Arena publicity director Bill Torrey, later the architect of the New York Islanders’ dynasty and a Hall of Famer, it was the start of a 10-58-2 season, the Hornets’ worst. Their affiliation with Detroit, however, was restored for the 1963-64 season . That Hornets team featured a career minor-leaguer named Doug Messier, whose son Mark would win Stanley Cups in Edmonton and New York, and a left winger named Paul Henderson, whose Summit Series-winning goal eight years later in Moscow remains arguably the most memorable in the history of the game. The Hornets’ last season in Pittsburgh was a glorious one .

With the Penguins on the horizon, Bastien behind the bench finishing his fourth stint as coach, Hank Bassen in goal and future Hall of Famer Doug Harvey on defense, the Hornets claimed the 1967 Calder Cup. This time, all the dramatics went Pittsburgh’s way. On April 30, before a home crowd of 5,169, Terry Gray tied the game with 33 seconds left in regulation and Billy Harris won it 26 seconds into overtime to complete a finals sweep of Rochester with a 4-3 victory. It remains the only pro title won by a Pittsburgh hockey team on home ice. The Press, in describing the post-game celebration, noted that one Hornets’ fan on his way home shouted out his feelings about having seen his team’s final game: “Who needs the Penguins?” @PghHockey Tweets From @upgruv | Is #Pittsburgh or #Boston the better sports town? Cameron Gunce in the lineup for the @Penguins tonight. Playing in his 21st game. Scored 1st NHL goal v.

Pens Marc-Andre Fleury on 2/6/11 "I'm Score!" From @upgruv | Those @Malkin71_ hat tricks. Do you remember them all? @Penguins Sidney Crosby currently tied with McDavid with 50 points in @NHL scoring race. 8 goals in a game for @penguins ties PPG Paints Arena (Consol) record. 9th time! : RT @PghHockey: @Penguins record is 18-2-2, in games that Sidney Crosby has scored a goal this season. © 1999-2016 PittsburghHockey.Net "It's not Pittsburgh Hockey without the NET" Press f for fullscreen. Remembering the Pittsburgh Pirates, the team that brought line changes to the NHL - SBNation.com Remembering the Pittsburgh Pirates, the team that brought line changes to the NHL via YouTube One of the easiest mistakes to make when it comes to hockey history is the assumption that the Original 6 teams as we know them -- the New York Rangers , Chicago Black Hawks, Boston Bruins , Toronto Maple Leafs , Montreal Canadiens and Detroit Red Wings -- is where the NHL started. It wasn't.

The Original 6 was nothing more than an era of the NHL that lasted for 25 years between 1942 and the expansion boom of 1967 -- when the phrase Original 6 became commonplace -- as the league doubled in size from six teams to 12. The NHL actually existed long before the Original 6 era in many different forms between 1917 and the end of the 1941-42 seasons. In its earliest form, the NHL was a three-team Canadian league that gradually started to branch out to Quebec, Hamilton and Ottawa before doing what the NHL always does when it wants to expand: Move south. It started in the 1924-25 season with the Boston Bruins, and then continued the following season with the New York Americans and the subject of today's edition of Lost Franchises , the Pittsburgh Pirates. Pittsburgh's humble NHL beginnings The Pirates were originally called the Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets, playing in the United States Amateur Hockey Association until that league's demise at the end of the 1924-25 season.

It was then that owner Roy Schooley sold the team to James Callahan, a Pittsburgh lawyer, who was granted an NHL franchise, renaming the Yellow Jackets after the city's baseball team. Duquesne Gardens in the 1950s, long after the Pirates left. ( Wikipedia ) Like their baseball namesake, the Pirates had a black and gold color scheme. That would later become relevant in the 1980s when the Penguins , Pittsburgh's current NHL team, attempted to change their uniforms from their original blue and white to black and gold to match the city's other professional sports teams. The Boston Bruins protested the change, arguing that the color scheme exclusively belonged to them. But because the Pirates had previously worn black and gold in the 1920s, the league allowed the Penguins to make the switch. The Pirates lasted in the NHL for five seasons between 1925 and 1930, playing their home games at the Duquesne Gardens, an old trolley barn that was repurposed into a multipurpose sports arena in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. They made their NHL debut on Nov.

26, 1925 with a 2-1 win over the Boston Bruins, and followed that up with a 1-0 win over the Montreal Canadiens in what would turn out to be the final game played by legendary goalie Georges Vezina. Vezina, who had fallen ill before the season, collapsed in his crease during the second period and was later diagnosed with tuberculosis. He passed away a few months later. While the team had very little success on the ice, winning only 67 of its 212 games and qualifying for the playoffs twice in five tries, it was a team under player/coach Odie Cleghorn that was, in some ways, ahead of its time. Innovation: The first line changes and reserve players In the early days of the NHL -- and this is something we briefly touched in our look at the Seattle Metropolitans -- rosters were significantly smaller than the league we know today, and games typically involved teams just keeping the same players on the ice for as long as they could. Pittsburgh's contribution to hockey was regular line changes and a reliance on reserve players. The Pirates coach during his playing days, pictured here with the Renfrew Millionaires.

( Wikipedia ) The Pittsburgh Press highlighted the Pirates' "depth" in a December article during the team's inaugural 1925 season. It is a fascinating look back at not only 1920s hockey, but 1920s sports writing. Here is a brief excerpt (and be sure to check out the rest of that page; it's really something): Odie Cleghorn's Pirate reserves are about the best in the National Hockey League, and if the belief that a team is no stronger than its substitutes counts for anything, then the Pittsburgh sextet is second best to none in the major organization. Manager Cleghorn is the only leader in the league who so far has used two full forward lines, and he is about the only manager in the circuit who has such high class material available for regular duty. In the games played to date the Black and Gold mentor has started all his games with McCurry as left wing, Milks at center and Darragh at right, but when the halftime mark is reached in each period Odie sends out his "Three Mustketeers," Drury at center, White at right and Berlinquette or Cotton at left wing.

The second line of offense usually remains on the ice for six or eight minutes and then the first line goes out to finish the period. By using this system Cleghorn can keep a fresh line on the ice almost all during the game, and with Spring and Skinner still vailable he can alternate these sparemen with Smith or Conacher, or any of the forwards should the occasion come up. If that doesn't capture the spirit of what 1920s NHL hockey was all about, I'm not sure what does. The result of Cleghorn's strategy was one of the deepest teams in the league, featuring seven players who scored at least seven goals during the 1925-26 season. No other team in the league had more than five players score that often. They finished with a 19-16-1 record, good enough for third place in the six-team league and a spot in the playoffs against the Montreal Maroons. The playoffs in these days were not best-of-seven series where the team that won the most games moved on, but a two-game matchup where the winner was decided by the total number of goals scored in the two games, much like aggregate goal series in soccer today.

Montreal ended up moving on to a Stanley Cup meeting with Ottawa thanks to a 6-4 advantage. The Pirates made one more playoff appearance, losing to the New York Rangers in 1927-28. Financial struggles and bootleggin' By the end of the 1928-29 season, the Pirates were a struggling team both on and off the ice, losing games and money, and were in need of a new arena. The Duquesne Gardens, which only had a capacity of 5,000 for hockey, had quickly become outdated due significantly larger arenas that were starting to sprout up around the league. Financial hardships as early as their second season forced the team to trade Lionel Conacher, a multi-sport star who was later named Canada's greatest male athlete of the half-century, to the New York Americans for Charlie Langlois and $2,000 cash. He went on to win Stanley Cups with the Chicago Black Hawks and the Maroons while finishing as a runner-up for the Hart Trophy two times, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1994.

In Pittsburgh's first season, Conacher was not only the best player on the team and one of the best in the league, he was also the highest-paid player in the league, earning a salary of $7,500. The league had actually implemented a salary cap of $35,000 that season in an effort to curb player salaries. Conacher's salary took up 21 percent of the Pirates' cap space, which would be the equivalent of a player in today's NHL taking up $14.7 million of the $69 million cap. When the stock market crashed in 1929 and the Great Depression started to set in, the Pirates were one of the many teams in the league that was losing money and struggling to make ends meet. By that point Callahan had already sold the team to a group that featured a prohibition bootlegger by the name of Bill Dwyer , and was fronted by a boxing promoter by the name of Benny Leonard. The team continued to struggle financially while the product on the ice deteriorated to the point where they won just 14 of their 88 games over the last two seasons.

Pennsylvania hockey today Pittsburgh Penguins blog PensBurgh Philadelphia Flyers blog Broad Street Hockey Relocation to Philadelphia In the 1929-30 season, the Pirates won only five games and ended the season on an impossibly bad 1-23-2 run over the final 26 games. Following that campaign, the team, which had already changed its color scheme to orange and black, moved to Philadelphia and was renamed the Quakers. The Quakers lasted just one season before folding, and somehow things managed to get even worse than they were during the final season in Pittsburgh. The Quakers finished with a 4-36-4 record, a points percentage that was so bad that it would not be matched until the expansion Washington Capitals won just eight of their 80 games during the 1974-75 season. When the team moved to Philadelphia, the initial plan was to relocate back to Pittsburgh when a new arena was built. But the Great Depression was in the process of wrecking the league's then-set up, and Pittsburgh didn't get its new home until 1961 when the Civic Arena was built, eventually leading to the birth of the Penguins.

Next Up In NHL 1925-30 Pittsburgh Pirates Hockey (NHL) 1925-30 Pittsburgh Pirates Hockey (NHL) 1925-30 Pittsburgh Pirates Hockey (NHL) FAST FACTS • The Pirates were the city’s first NHL team. • New York Americans’ Billy Burch, the reigning MVP, scored a the first NHL goal in the city of Pittsburgh. • Captain Lionel “L-Train” Conacher scored Pittsburgh’s first-ever NHL goal. • The last active Pirates player was Cliff Barton, who played his last NHL game in 1940. • The Pirates colors of black and gold would be used as supporting evidence when the Pittsburgh Penguins switched to those colors in 1980. • Four Pirates players would eventually be enshrined in the Hall of Fame: – Lionel Conacher • Pirates uniform history For speed, hard and accurate shooters and brains, the Pirates excel. There are no faster skaters in the circuit than Drury, McCurry, Milks, Darragh and Smith. Taking everything into consideration, the Pirates should be up near the top throughout the season.

PITTSBURGH PRESS, describing the Pirates before the start of their maiden season in the NHL The NHL continues to inch south; Pittsburgh second U.S. team PAUL CHRISTMAN Pittsburghhockey.net Contributer Pittsburgh’s first National Hockey League franchise got its start in 1925 when the growing NHL welcomed two new franchises – the New York Americans and Pittsburgh Pirates – and continued an incursion into the United States that began just the year before. The NHL had started as an all-Canadian league with four teams in 1917: the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Arenas, Ottawa Senators, and Montreal Wanderers. The Wanderers left the NHL when their arena burned down during that first season of 1917-18. And when Toronto suspended operations after the 1918-19 season started (following a Stanley Cup win in 1918), only Canadiens and Senators remained. Montreal defeated Ottawa in the 1919 NHL championship series and earned the right to play the Pacific Coast Hockey Association champion for the Stanley Cup (the Cup did not become a trophy that NHL teams exclusively played for until 1926).

Montreal’s Cup series with the PCHA champion Seattle Metropolitans was suspended when the Spanish flu epidemic struck both teams. The flu took the life of Canadiens forward Joe Hall. How the fledgling NHL withstood these and other storms and moved ahead is a fascinating story in itself. The entrance of the Quebec Bulldogs and Toronto St. Patricks brought the NHL back to four teams in 1919-20. The Bulldogs became the Hamilton Tigers after one losing season. The NHL came to the United States for the first time in 1924 with an expansion team, the Boston Bruins. At the same time, Montreal also received an expansion team, the Maroons, which created an intercity rivalry with the Canadiens. In 1925, the NHL entered New York, the largest U.S. city. The Hamilton Tigers players went on strike over not being paid extra money to play in the 1925 playoffs. Bootlegger Bill Dwyer then bought the rights to the Tiger players, moved the team to New York, and named it the Americans. The NHL also expanded to Pittsburgh in 1925. The western Pennsylvania city already had every right to be proud of its hockey history.

Pittsburgh’s entry into the NHL helped to forestall Eddie Livingstone, a controversial NHL nemesis, and his plans for a proposed rival league. Livingstone pushed for such leagues at various times from 1918 until the mid-1920s, but none materialized. In 1926, the NHL would add a second New York team, the Rangers, as well as the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Cougars (eventually the Red Wings). At that point, it was a 10-team league. The NHL’s inroads into the United States worried some established members of the league. In small-market Ottawa (population of 153,000 in the 1921 census), the league-leading Senators wondered how long their team would be able to compete successfully. The newborn Pittsburgh NHL franchise had a long and honorable tradition to uphold. Pittsburgh had been the base of the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League and was home to the Schenley Park Casino, the first United States Olympic hockey team, the Duquesne Garden, and the Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets, champions of the United States Amateur Hockey Association (USAHA) in 1924 and 1925.

The owner of the Yellow Jackets was the respected Roy Schooley, whose hockey background extended back to 1901. Financial problems forced Schooley to sell the Jackets to Pittsburgh attorney James Callahan and Duquesne Garden president Henry Townsend. The USAHA soon folded, but most of the Jackets became members of the new NHL team, which Callahan and Townsend ran. Roy Schooley Schooley was not done with hockey. NHL President Frank Calder said he wouldn’t be surprised to find Schooley being “the moving spirit” behind Livingstone’s push for a rival league. As the USAHA broke up, Calder reasoned that some of the cities that had lost amateur teams would push for their own professional squads, especially with the line between “amateur” and “professional” hockey said to be thin. Ralph Davis of the Pittsburgh Pressheld that the only difference between professional and amateur hockey apparently was that “the pros get their money openly and boast about it, and the amateurs take theirs under cover and are silent about it.” The differences didn’t quite end there. As the NHL Pirates prepared to play their first home game, the Pittsburgh Press noted that fans would see a different brand of hockey than they were used to with the amateur Yellow Jackets.

“Petty” offsides would be eliminated, and forward passing and kicking the puck would be permitted in the 40-foot center ice area. The NHL game was also played in three 20-minute periods, versus the three 15-minute periods of amateur hockey. The Press alluded to any number of other innovations in the pro game and concluded that hockey would now be considerably faster and more interesting from every angle, recalling the days of the ˜pro’ sport here 25 years ago. A question remained: How well could amateur-turned-pro players make the adjustment? If Calder needed an example of the push in certain cities for pro hockey, he had one in Pittsburgh. When Livingstone failed to launch his new league and the Yellow Jackets were sold to Townsend and Callahan, Schooley announced that another new professional hockey league would replace the USAHA. (See Morey Holzman and Joseph Nieforth, Deceptions and Doublecross: How the NHL Conquered Hockey (The Dundurn Group, 2002).) That league emerged as the Central Hockey Association in 1925 (later, the American Hockey Association (AHA) from 1926 to 1942).

It operated in the upper Midwest, but not in Pittsburgh. Livingstone came in as owner of the AHA Chicago Cardinals in 1926-27. Schooley was not directly associated with the new league. He instead stayed active in Pittsburgh politics. But he re-entered hockey with the West Penn Amateur League in 1928-29 and the Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets of the International Hockey League in 1930. A new league, team name, and coach – and familiar players Pittsburgh’s new NHL team had new management (Callahan and Townsend), but there were no substantial changes in the player roster from the year before. Almost all of the previous year’s champion Yellow Jackets signed on with the new NHL squad. Trading their yellow and black Jackets uniforms in for the Pirate yellow and black were goaltender Roy “Shrimp” Worters, defensemen Lionel Conacher, Herb Drury, and Rodger Smith, and forwards Harold “Baldy” Cotton, Harold Darragh, Francis “Duke” McCurry, Hib Milks, and Wilford “Tex” White. Two of these players (Conacher and Worters) would become Hockey Hall of Fame members.

Conacher was nicknamed “The Big Train” and voted Canada’s top athlete of the first half of the 20th century. He was the acknowledged leader of the Jackets, and he helped recruit friends like Worters, Darragh, and Cotton for the team. Conacher’s value to the Pirates was clear when the team signed him to a three-year contract at a record salary of $7,500 per year. Worters’s acrobatics made him one of the top goaltenders of his era. The 5’3″ Worters was the first NHL goalie to record back-to-back shutouts. He played in virtually every Pirates game in their first three years, during which Pittsburgh made the playoffs twice. The former Yellow Jacket players would not play under the watch of their former behind-the-bench leader. Dick Carroll was the coach of the Jackets in their championship years of 1924 and 1925. He had guided Toronto Arenas to the Stanley Cup in the NHL’s inaugural year of 1917-18. The Arenas were the first NHL team to win the Cup in that pre-1926 era when the NHL did not exclusively control the trophy.

Carroll’s Toronto Canoe Club team took the Memorial Cup in 1920. He then came to Pittsburgh to coach the Jackets. Carroll was a very close associate of Eddie Livingstone, that thorn in the NHL’s side. Not surprisingly, Carroll did not switch to the NHL in 1925 but instead accompanied Livingstone to the AHA in 1926. Carroll began a very successful five-year term as coach of the Duluth Hornets and next the Tulsa Oilers. He had less success later when he coached the AHA St. Louis Flyers and Oklahoma City Warriors. In mid-October 1925, the Pittsburgh NHL franchise named 33-year-old James Ogilvie “Odie” Cleghorn as its coach. A fancy dresser off the ice, Cleghorn was a right-winger with a reputation as a fine stick-handler who could come back and play with finesse on defense. He was younger brother of Hall of Fame defenseman Sprague Cleghorn, then with the Bruins. Odie had played for the New York Wanderers, Renfrew Creamery Kings, Montreal Wanderers, and Montreal Canadiens since the 1909-10 season.

Odie Cleghorn As the 1925-26 season approached, the Ottawa Senators objected to Pittsburgh’s entry into the NHL. Ottawa’s primary concern quite possibly was its own ability to keep up with new NHL teams entering larger U.S. markets. However, the Senators’ stated claim was that two-thirds of the Pittsburghers were players who had skated as amateurs the previous year in the USAHA and thus would not compete equally with the players of other NHL teams. Whether “amateur” USAHA players could make the grade in the NHL was debated. But it was worth noting that these former Yellow Jackets were experienced. Their hockey careers had started between 1914 and 1919, and they averaged 25 years of age. Two players were 29. And they had been paid in the USAHA, even if it was “under cover.” Frank Calder called amateur hockey “a farce as regards amateurism.” Ottawa must have realized that they weren’t going to convert many other NHL teams to their position, given the facts about “amateur” hockey and the NHL’s thrust into the United States.

At the NHL meeting of November 7, 1925, the Senators withdrew their objection to admitting Pittsburgh. The vote of the Board of Governors to let Pittsburgh in was thus made unanimous. The NHL now had seven teams.As Pittsburgh’s coach, Cleghorn was the first in the NHL to change his players on the fly, rather than when play stopped. He was also the first coach to use three set forward lines at a time when it was common to play the best players to their absolute limit and substitute on an irregular basis. Cleghorn’s first line had McCurry at left wing, Milks at center, and Darragh at right wing. The three would be spelled about halfway through the period by Cotton or Louis Berlinguette (left wing), Drury (center), and White (right wing). After the second line played six or eight minutes, the first line might reappear. Cleghorn could also use a third line. Fred Lowrey, Alf Skinner, and, in 17 games, Cleghorn himself played as substitute forwards (Cleghorn at right wing). The practice of using set lines was quickly copied by all NHL teams.

Harland Rohm of the Chicago Tribune pointed out that this system had “the great advantage of having centers and wings work with men to whose idiosyncracies of play they were accustomed.” But the new NHL team needed a name. It is said that Callahan named his club “Pirates” after he cashed in a favor from Barney Dreyfuss, the owner of the baseball Pittsburgh Pirates of nearby Forbes Field. Details of this favor are not known, but Dreyfuss apparently came through for Callahan quickly. The Pittsburgh Press referred to the squad as the “Pirates” rather than the “Pittsburgh hockey club” for the first time November 11, when the team was four days old. Acquiring that name meant the NHL team had yet another honor to uphold. The baseball Pirates had used the Pirates name since 1891. They had recently defeated the Washington Senators in the 1925 World Series and added yet another Pittsburgh championship to those of the 1924 and 1925 hockey Yellow Jackets. Inevitably, Pittsburgh sports fans would likely expect much of the new hockey Pirates.

Duquesne Garden, January 1900 Home ice for the Pirates, as it was for the Yellow Jackets, would be the Duquesne Garden, just north of the corner of Fifth Avenue and Craig Street in Pittsburgh’s Oakland section (near the site of the Schenley Park Casino, which had burned down in 1896). The Garden was first erected as a trolley barn in 1890. Six years later, it was converted into an arena seating about 5,000. The Garden earned much praise in its early days. In the hockey encyclopedia Total Hockey (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 1998), Brian McFarlane related in Our Electrifying Game: Hockey in the Era of Gaslight the report of the manager of a Kingston, Ontario team that had journeyed to the Garden in 1902. The manager told the Toronto Globe, “Pittsburgh is hockey crazy. Over 10,000 turned out for our three games there. The fans paid 35 cents for general admission and 75 cents for a box seat.

The manager said that receipts came to a total of $4,000, but all we got for our share was about $350, which, after expenses, will leave about enough to buy some postage stamps. Yet, the manager reported, the Pittsburgh rink is a dream . . . The place is lighted by thousands of incandescent lamps. The band is always in attendance and there is every convenience for patrons. What a marvelous place it is.” By the 1920s, however, the place could hardly be more outdated. The Garden was not up to the occasion of Pittsburgh’s entrance into the NHL. New rinks were springing up in almost every other city in the league. About 15,000 fans could be comfortably seated in New York, Boston, and Montreal. Not even half that number could squeeze into the Duquesne Garden. Moreover, the ice-making operation at the Garden was quite antiquated.

On Monday, October 12, 1925, as the Garden’s opening for public skating approached, the Pittsburgh Press reported, “Experts today began freezing the ice at Duquesne Garden for the grand opening Friday night.” The Friday referred to, of course, was four days away. Rinks built in the 1920s could produce an adequate ice surface in four hours, according to a 1931 Press story. In November 1927, the Toronto Star reported that the Pirates had to train at a local gym instead of the Garden. The Garden’s ice machine had broken down. The ancient arena would always severely hinder the Pirates. But as the NHL was about to debut in Pittsburgh, local sportswriters tended to ignore the Garden’s many defects. They were more inclined to eagerly pump up the Pirates’ chances in big-time hockey. The Garden, they said, would have trouble holding the expected crowds. On November 12, 1925, just five days after the Pittsburgh entered the NHL, the Pittsburgh Press predicted that the Pirates should be as strong as any NHL team, with the possible exception of the New York Americans.

The Press stated, “For speed, hard and accurate shooters and brains, the Pirates excel. There are no faster skaters in the circuit than Drury, McCurry, Milks, Darragh and Smith. Taking everything into consideration, the Pirates should be up near the top throughout the season.” If the Pirates were to finish in the top half of the standings, the Press said, it would be “quite an achievement the first year in fast company.” Pittsburgh Named Sporting News 'Best Sports City' | NHL.com Pittsburgh Named Sporting News 'Best Sports City' Pittsburgh Named Sporting News 'Best Sports City' by Jason Seidling / Pittsburgh Penguins Almost four months after securing the city of Pittsburgh their third Stanley Cup championship, the Penguins, along with the help of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Pittsburgh Pirates and the University of Pittsburgh, helped deliver the city another title in 2009: ‘Best Sports City’ courtesy of Sporting News. Pittsburgh beat out another Pennsylvania city, Philadelphia, which finished second, and last year’s champion, Boston, which came in third, to capture the top spot in the magazine’s 16th annual poll.

“This was a pretty easy one for us this year given the championship won with the Stanley Cup and the Super Bowl, and given the rabid nature of this market,” said Sporting News’ publisher Ed Baker, in town to present the accompanying glass trophy to Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl. Results of the “Best Sports Cities” poll and the accompanying spread on Pittsburgh can be found in this week’s edition of Sporting News. Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger are featured on the cover. Baker and Mayor Ravenstahl were joined Wednesday morning at the mayor’s office in the City-County building by representatives from both the Penguins’ and Steelers’ organizations. Along with the trophy, Baker also presented Mayor Ravenstahl with the gold tie he was wearing, something that has become a tradition when presenting the new No. 1 sports city. “Be prepared some of these guys might ask you how much it cost,” Ravenstahl joked upon accepting the tie. Playing along, Baker noted, “We bought the tie. It’s a gift and it is under 100 dollars. It is all good.” Mayor Ravenstahl then opened his acceptance speech by wondering why this is Pittsburgh’s first time gathering this award.

“It is an honor to accept this on behalf of the sports fans of Pittsburgh. My question is, ‘I don’t know how we don’t win this every year.’ This is a great town. I think winning cures all and I think that is the major reason we are here today, because of the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins and the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers.” Selection for Sporting News’ best sports city is not as easy as some would believe. Baker noted during his opening that the champion comes from criteria which include a little math, a little science and some subjectivity. Included in the criteria are number of sports franchises, attendance at games, percentage of seats filled and playoff teams. Baker said after the press conference that Pittsburgh starts every year at a disadvantage due to not having a professional basketball team. Along with winning two championships in 2009, Baker said it was the great fans that support these successful franchises that really put Pittsburgh over the top in 2009. “It continues to amaze me how I can show up at an arena and see so much gold at an opposing facility no matter where we go. It is not the case with every (city) in this country.

I think it is a real testament to the long-standing nature of the Pittsburgh fans.” Crosby also credited fans for the award when he was asked bout the subject following Wednesday’s pre-game skate at Mellon Arena. “You see the amount of support for the teams,” Crosby said. “They deserve (this award) not only because we won, but because of the support they show and how great of a sports town it is. It’s a great situation when a couple of teams win championships but at the same time, they’ve earned that right through their support. Their attitude towards sports itself represents what it is to be a sports fan. Mayor Ravenstahl believes the great job local teams such as the Penguins do reaching out to their fans is why the teams are so beloved. “It’s great how the players are with the fans and how they interact with the fans regularly. I think that is unique, and it allows the fans to relate to the players and the teams.” Penguins’ representative Tom McMillan also took time to thank the fans for helping gather this honor. “Thank you to the fans,” McMillan said. “This really is an award for the fans and for the city.

We have all known this is a great sports town.” McMillan also talked about what players such as Crosby and Roethlisberger mean to Pittsburgh. “Sidney and Ben are a great reflection of what this city is all about. They represent the city well.” Mayor Ravenstahl called the two new “faces of the teams” when comparing their cover shot with the 1979 Sports Illustrated cover of the Pirates Willie Stargell and the Steelers Terry Bradshaw. McMillan noted that he already has plans for his edition of Sporting News. “I am of the age where I did have that cover of Bradshaw and Stargell, so it’s going to be nice to put this one side-by-side. I have had to keep this a secret for a month-and-a-half, so I already have a place on my wall for this.” In talking about what it’s like to go to other towns and talk to people there, Mayor Ravenstahl said the recent success of the Penguins has made them an immediate talking point. “The Penguins’ brand is certainly growing (across the country), which is great for Pittsburgh. (Other cities) identify with that.

When you go to other towns, one of the first things they refer to is your sports teams. That is a good thing because (our teams) represent such a good image.” Speaking of images, there is one Mayor Ravenstahl would like to replicate in 2010. “Hopefully we are back here next year at the same time.” Pittsburgh: City of Champions | Taste of Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh's Culinary Scene Pittsburgh: City of Champions Pittsburgh is at the top of its game when it comes to sports. It's a town that bleeds black and gold, the colors of its three professional sports teams – the Pirates, Penguins and Steelers. The Pittsburgh Penguins are Pittsburgh's professional ice hockey team. They began playing in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a 1967 expansion team. The Penguins were Stanley Cup Champions for two consecutive years, 1992 and 1991, again in 2009, and most recently in 2016. The Civic or Mellon Arena (known informally as "The Igloo"), home of the Penguins for 43 years, has been demolished for multi-use space.

Now, the team plays at CONSOL Energy Center, the first Gold-LEED Certified hockey arena in the NHL. In honor of Number 87, superstar Sidney Crosby, CONSOL's seating capacity is 18,087. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia and nicknamed "The Next One," Sidney Crosby was one of the most highly regarded draft picks in NHL history. Crosby was drafted first overall by the Penguins in 2005. In 1984, the last-placed Pittsburgh Penguins drafted an 18 year old kid from Montreal named Mario Lemieux, forever changing the face of professional hockey in Pittsburgh. Lemieux scores on his very first shift in his very first game, and goes on to collect four scoring titles, two season MVP awards and back to back Stanley Cup Championships. Today, Lemieux is another kind of hero as one of the owners of the Penguins. Lemieux purchased the team in 1999. Originally named the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Pittsburgh Steelers are the oldest and most championed franchise in the AFC.

The team was renamed the Steelers in 1941 after the city's prominent steel industry to reflect the "blue-collar worker" ethic of the many Pittsburgh fans – as well as to avoid confusion with the major league baseball team with the same name. The Steelers are the only team to have won the Super Bowl six times – most recently Super Bowl XLIII in 2009. The Steelers and the University of Pittsburgh Panthers both play at Heinz Field, a football stadium that has a seating of capacity of 68,400. Heinz Field, which opened in August 2001, was built with a mixture of private and public funds to replace Three Rivers Stadium. This stadium was demolished in 2001. Watching the Pittsburgh Pirates (nicknamed "The Bucs" or "Buccos") is a tradition in Pittsburgh. That tradition began when the team, then called the Pittsburgh Alleghenies, played their first National League game in 1887. In 1891, The Alleghenies were renamed Pirates, which went on to win five World Series.

In the spring of 2001, the Pirates began playing at PNC Park, a 38,496-seat classic-style ballpark that embraces the progressiveness of Pittsburgh while saluting the spirit of early ballpark originals such as Forbes Field, Wrigley Field and Fenway Park. Opened in 2012, Highmark Stadium is the home of the Pittsburgh Riverhounds professional soccer team and the Pittsburgh Passion, professional women's football team. The stadium operates year-round and hosts training programs, games and tournaments for soccer, football, lacrosse, rugby and softball. Stadium users will include youth, high school, college, adult and professional athletes. Outdoor ice rinks are available in the winter for public skate and amateur hockey games. The stadium is also to be used for concerts and music events. Its prime location along the shore of the Allegheny River takes advantage of scenic vistas of the downtown skyline and riverfront, as well as pedestrian and riverboat access. It also provides easy access for pedestrians crossing the Roberto Clemente Bridge from downtown, as well as those arriving from the riverwalk.

On game days, the bridge is closed off to vehicular traffic and spectators are met by a dynamic interactive retail/restaurant and sports pavilion beyond right field, with attractions for all ages. Sports lovers will want to visit the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum in the Senator John Heinz History Center. The museum showcases the legendary history of regional sports with one-of-a-kind artifacts and iconic photos. Pittsburgh is the city of rivers, so it is only fitting that it be a premier location for water sports. The rivers are the perfect place for fishing, kayaking, canoeing and boating. From spring to fall, a kayak and canoe rental concession is open on the North Shore. Other river highlights include the annual Pittsburgh Three Rivers Regatta and the Head of the Ohio, a race featuring rowing teams from all over the globe. Pittsburgh boasts 24-miles of riverfront and the region is home to a wealth of rails-to-trails recreation areas, as well. Off-trail, a unique blend of steep, winding hills and flat river areas make it one of the best cities for cycling enthusiasts. The Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) is a 141-mile hiking and biking trail between Pittsburgh and Cumberland, MD.

In Cumberland, the GAP joins the C&O Canal Towpath, creating a continuous 355-mile trail to Washington, D.C. Rolling forested hills, rich farmland and sparkling rivers make Western Pennsylvania a visual treat, and it has some of the best golf in the United States. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has more golf courses per capita than any other U.S. state. Visitors can tee off at more than 100 public golf courses in the Pittsburgh area. Official Pittsburgh Penguins Website | NHL.com Penguins Privacy Policy Employment & Internships Contact Us pittsburghpenguins.com is the official website of the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Pittsburgh Penguins and pittsburghpenguins.com are trademarks of Lemieux Group, LP. NHL, the NHL Shield, the word mark and image of the Stanley Cup and the word mark NHL Winter Classic are registered trademarks and NHL Stadium Series name and logo and the NHL Winter Classic logo are trademarks of the National Hockey League. NHL and NHL team marks are the property of the NHL and its teams. © NHL 2017. All Rights Reserved. Advertisement will run for seconds. × Ask Sports: Why do all Pittsburgh teams wear black and gold?

| The Wichita Eagle October 13, 2013 12:00 AM Ask Sports: Why do all Pittsburgh teams wear black and gold? Why do all Pittsburgh teams wear black and gold? Order Reprint of this Story Why do all Pittsburgh teams wear black and gold? It’s pretty simple - they are the colors of Pittsburgh’s flag, which in turn, is based on the coat of arms of William Pitt, the 18th century British prime minister for whom the city is named. While other cities have sports teams decked out in the colors of their flags - the New York Mets, for example - Pittsburgh is unique in that all three of its major teams go with the same color scheme. It has not always been the case, as two of the teams have worn other colors in their histories. The Steelers - originally known as the Pirates - have always had black and gold since their founding in 1933. The baseball Pirates, who started in 1887, had combinations of red and blue before switching to black and gold in 1948.

(Please try to forget about the terrible red alternate uniforms that crept into the Pirates’ color palette in the 2000s.) Finally, the Penguins switched from blue and white to black and gold for good in 1980, despite the objections of the Boston Bruins, who somehow thought that two primary colors could be trademarked. The Penguins went to the WABAC machine, however, to point out the city’s NHL history began with the black-and-gold clad Pittsburgh Pirates - yes, this is a third franchise with that name - in the 1920s. The hockey Pirates wore “bright yellow wool jerseys with black trim stripes with a ‘P’ on the front of their jerseys in 1925-26. The team used the Pittsburgh’s city crest emblems from older police jackets on the uniform sleeves,” Pittsburghhockey.net has archived.

The ice Pirates only lasted from 1925 until 1930, one of a number of teams in the NHL’s early years that are not included when the league refers to its “Original Six.” The ABA’s Pittsburgh Condors and Pipers didn’t get the color-scheme message in the 1960s and 70s, however. They went from blue and gold to red and gold before folding in after the 1971-72 season. Joshua Wood VIDEO: Penguins have Pirates fever, play wiffle ball on ice - CBSSports.com CBSSports.com VIDEO: Penguins have Pirates fever, play wiffle ball on ice VIDEO: Penguins have Pirates fever, play wiffle ball on ice The Penguins are feeling the Pittsburgh solidarity, getting in the Pirates spirit by playing wiffle ball on the ice. In skates. NHL previews: Atlantic Division | Metropolitan Division | Central Division | Pacific Division While the season is about to start, the Pittsburgh Penguins have Pirates fever. The baseball team across town has rekindled the city's love for baseball, one that even touched the Penguins who played wiffle ball dressed as the Pirates on Tuesday. On the ice.

In their skates. It's always great to see the players having fun in down time. These are the types of things that not only are enjoyable but go a long way toward building that always needed chemistry or whatever other intangibles people love to rave about. Also, quite the shot by who I believe is Chris Kunitz, sending the ball into the seats. Good bat speed, no wonder he can score so well. Here's a little more on the game including some additional video from CBS Pittsburgh. The Pirates will play host to the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night in Pittsburgh in the wild card game. Add a comment Pittsburgh Steelers' History Heinz Field - Pittsburgh, PA. © 2002 Kimberly Powell Updated February 25, 2016. Heinz Field, home to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pittsburgh Panthers, is a monument to Western Pennsylvania football tradition and, especially, to the fans. To understand just what Heinz Field represents to the Pittsburgh Steelers and the city of Pittsburgh, however, you first have to understand the events which brought us to this day. The Steelers' roots in Pittsburgh date back to July 8, 1933 when they were founded under the name Pittsburgh Pirates by Arthur Joseph Rooney.

They were a member of the Eastern Division of the 10-team NFL, five of which remain: Pittsburgh Steelers, Chicago (Arizona) Cardinals, Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears and New York Giants. The Steelers were not always the thriving team that they are today, however. In their first seven seasons, the Pittsburgh Steelers won only 22 games. continue reading below our video America's Best Foodie Cities Professional football just wasn't a priority in Pittsburgh, where baseball and college football were much more popular, so Art Rooney often took the Steelers away from their home at Forbes Field , and on the road to cities such as Johnstown, PA; Youngstown, OH; and New Orleans, LA. Through it all, Rooney never faltered in his resolve to make pro football successful in Pittsburgh. In 1938, Rooney offered Colorado All-American Byron "Whizzer" White a $15,800 contract, making him the NFL's first 'big money' player. Two years later, in an attempt to generate some fan support and involvement, the football team changed its name to the Pittsburgh Steelers, in recognition of Pittsburgh's proud steel heritage.

Yet it still took two more years before the Steelers, thanks to rookie Bill Dudley who led the NFL in rushing, enjoyed their first winning season. The following years saw the Pittsburgh Steelers merged with the Philadelphia Eagles "Steagles" (1943) and Cardinals "Card-Pitt" (1944) as football rosters became depleted by World War II. The Steelers first chance at a division title came in 1947 under coach Jock Sutherland as the Pittsburgh Steelers finished in a tie for first place in the NFL's Eastern Division with the Philadelphia Eagles, who beat the Steelers in a playoff game 21-0. From 1957 to 1963, the Steelers, led by quarterback Bobby Layne, defensive tackle Ernie Stautner and running back John Henry Johnson, were again division contenders but continued to come up short. The 'dynasty years' of the Pittsburgh Steelers were still a decade away.

Two significant changes took place in 1970, when the Pittsburgh Steelers, under the leadership of coach Chuck Noll, moved from the NFL to the AFC Central with the merger of the American Football League and the National Football League, and also moved into their new home at Three Rivers Stadium , named after the three rivers (Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio Rivers) that converge at downtown Pittsburgh. Previously, the Steelers had played home games at both Forbes Field and Pitt Stadium (home of the University of Pittsburgh Panthers) from 1958-63 and, exclusively at Pitt Stadium from 1964-69. Many think Three Rivers Stadium brought good luck, as the Pittsburgh Steelers' first-ever division title came in 1972 with an 11-3 record. In the first playoff game at Three Rivers, the Steelers defeated the Oakland Raiders 13-7 and advanced to the AFC Championship Game (which they later lost) with Franco Harris' " Immaculate Reception ," perhaps the most famous play in NFL history, during the final minute of the game.

The Pittsburgh Steelers, led by Hall of Famers Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Mel Blount, Joe Greene, Jack Lambert and Jack Ham, again reached the playoffs in 1973, winning the Super Bowl the next two seasons. After missing another chance at the Super Bowl with playoff losses in 1976 and 1977, the Steelers won the Super Bowl again in 1978 and 1979, becoming the first team in NFL history to win four Super Bowls and the only team to win back-to-back Super Bowls twice. With six consecutive AFC Central championships, eight straight years of playoff appearances, and four Super Bowl championships, the Steelers were affectionately dubbed as the "Team of the Decade" for the 1970s. The newest chapter of Steelers history began in June of 1998 with the official ground-breaking for Heinz Field, the new 64,450-seat home of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pittsburgh Panthers. The gates to Heinz Field were officially opened in August of 2001 for seasons of thrills and excitement that will provide a lifetime of memories for generations of football fans.

Beyond the South Plaza, Heinz Field's horseshoe shape allows for a beautiful view of the city's unique skyline and the fountain at the Point. Dan Rooney, son of Steelers founder Art Rooney, looks at Heinz Field as the Steelers' "thank you" to the loyal fans who made them one of the best football franchises in history - a beautiful, intimate home where "every seat is a good football seat."

Question: Which US city is host to teams called the Penguins in Ice Hockey and the Pirates in Baseball?
Answer: Pittsburgh